Recent Updates to Federal Environmental and Natural Resource Regulations
On-Demand Webinar | Regulatory Uncertainty and Linear Infrastructure Projects: Where Are We and What’s Ahead?
On-Demand Webinar | Linear Infrastructure Redux: Adapting Your Projects to Meet the New Regulatory Climate
On-Demand Webinar | The New NEPA Regulations: A Practical Guide to What You Need to Know
How Trump's Infrastructure Plan Impacts the Energy Industry
Environmental Justice: 2023 Year in Review and 2024 Look-Ahead - As a concept, Environmental Justice, or EJ, has been around for more than 40 years. Beginning as a slogan at protests in Warren County, NC in 1982, EJ...more
On September 21, 2023, the Biden administration outlined plans to expand federal agencies’ consideration of the social cost of carbon—a metric for the economic cost of each additional ton of carbon dioxide emitted to the...more
On July 28, 2023, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) proposed reforms to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations governing how federal agencies review the environmental effects of major federal...more
The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has proposed further amendments to its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) implementing regulations as part of its phased rulemaking initiated in 2021. The proposed Bipartisan...more
On July 16, 2023, Climatewire (subscription required) released a peer review letter on EPA’s Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (SC-GHG), which got a fair bit of press last year, because EPA’s metric was $190/ton, even though...more
On April 21, 2023, the eve of Earth Day, President Biden continued his Administration's spotlight on environmental justice issues by signing Executive Order 14096, entitled "Revitalizing Our Nation's Commitment to...more
Right on the heels of Earth Day, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 14096, titled “Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All”....more
From the earliest days, the Biden Administration has made environmental justice and equity a key pillar of its environmental policy, directing EPA to incorporate this concept at all levels of its decision-making process...more
In the latest effort by the Biden administration to promote consideration of climate and environmental justice impacts in federal decision-making, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) recently issued interim...more
“Environmental justice” (EJ) continues as the primary leitmotif of Biden Administration environmental policy in the first weeks of 2023. Below, we unpack two recently announced EJ efforts: a grant program for groups in...more
Climate Change Regulatory Issues & Updates - New NEPA Proposed Rule from CEQ Leaves Uncertain How U.S. Federal Agencies Must Assess Climate Change Impacts - On October 7, 2021, the Council on Environmental Quality...more
Biden administration to restore climate criteria to NEPA - The New York Times – October 6 - The Biden administration on Wednesday announced that it would restore climate change protections to the nation’s bedrock...more
The Biden Administration’s “whole of government” approach to advancing environmental justice (EJ) continues apace, with agencies and courts pursuing focused enforcement and environmental review strategies that could affect...more
“Environmental Justice” is the concept that all people - regardless of race, color, national origin, or income - should receive fair treatment and have meaningful involvement with respect to the development, implementation,...more
EPA and OMB issue directives and propose an initial budget for the Biden Administration’s EJ initiatives - With the Biden Administration’s appointees now in place, environmental justice (EJ) is moving to the forefront of...more
The swearing-in of Michael Regan as EPA Administrator means that open questions on policy, agenda-setting, and prioritization for the Agency will soon be answered. Issues that have risen to the top of the new EPA...more
The first 100 days of a new administration can define what lies ahead for the next four years. Join our panel of Nossaman Environment & Land Use attorneys from across the U.S. on April 15, 2021 from 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. PT...more
Right out of the box, the Biden Administration took a decisive stance on the importance of climate costs in agency decision making, returning to Obama-era metrics and values. On his first day in office, President Biden issued...more
Consistent with former administrations, the Biden administration took early actions to halt or review administrative regulations. One of the earlies administrative actions taken by the Biden administration was to freeze...more
During yesterday’s Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing, President Biden’s nominees for Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), Brenda Mallory, and for Deputy Administrator the...more
In its first week in office, the Biden Administration took initial steps to meet its ambitious goals to address climate change. These steps are contained in a January 20, 2021, executive order (the "Day One Order"), a January...more
With the arrival of a new US presidential administration, companies are anticipating potential shifts in enforcement priorities by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the areas of climate change, the National...more
President Biden's Executive Orders Mobilize the Administrative State to Address Climate Change - On January 27th, the White House held a “Climate Day” press briefing where President Biden, Special Presidential Envoy for...more
On his first day in office on January 20, 2021, President Biden signed an Executive Order titled, “Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis” (the Order). The Order...more
Key Points - President Biden’s Day One Executive Order on climate action reconvenes an interagency working group to establish interim and final social costs of three GHGs: carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane. -...more